FAKE GURU • READING

The rules of a game, the kinds of interactions that a game puts you into, is the meaning of life for that game. And the meaning of life in World of Warcraft is that you’re some schmo who doesn’t really have anything better to do than sit around pushing a button and killing imaginary monsters that are meaningless. It also says it doesn’t really matter whether you’re smart or adept at trying to get ahead in the system because what really matters is how much time you sink in (because of all the artificial constraints on you). That also says you don’t need to do anything exceptional because to feel good, to be rewarded, all you need to do is run the treadmill like everyone else.

‘As cinema matured, films developed the power to transform as well as to entertain. Video games are poised to enter a similar golden age.’ As a designer, I [Jonathan Blow; Anmerkung Emu] want to see that golden age. I want to see us harness this power to transform society that Daniel Radosh [Journalist, NYT; Blow bezieht sich hier auf diesen Artikel; Anmerkung Emu] also wants to see. I’m a designer now because once a long time ago I was a gamer. I was a little kid who loved games; I played a lot of games. And I feel like I’ve grown up, I’m a smarter and wiser and a more experienced person now. Games are a lot bigger but they haven’t really grown. They haven’t kept pace with me. As a player I have this desire to be transformed like Daniel Radosh mentioned but I’m not getting it. At least not most of the time. — Jonathan Blow, 2007

Auch wenn die obigen Zitate von einem Vortrag stammen, der bereits drei Jahre alt ist, so haben sie dennoch nichts an Aktualität verloren. Seit einiger Zeit laufen Videospiele der Filmindustrie immer wieder den Rang ab, wenn es um Umsatzstärke geht – doch so sehr ich es mir auch wünsche, die ‘Kunstform’ Computerspiel, besteht leider immer noch nur in Ansätzen.

Ich lege Jonathan Blows Vortrag (hier als Audio, hier als Transcript) jedem sehr ans Herz, der sich selbst schon einmal dabei ertappt hat, wie er den Controler aus der Hand legt und sich fragt, was er die letzte Stunde eigentlich getan hat.